Thursday, March 22, 2007

Do the work, get it done!

“The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.”– Oprah Winfrey, entertainer

Many people are going to give me guff for quoting Oprah, but truth be told, many a lesson can be learned from Oprah.

I could, I should, I might, I'd like to, I could have, I want.....

How many times have you heard someone preface a sentence with one of the above. What did dothey afterwards? Did they achieve it?

How many times have you started a sentence with one of the above? What did you do afterwards? Did you make it happen? If so, good for you. You set a goal and achieved it. Give yourself a pat on the back.

Most people don't think twice about making a statement like, "I going to get in shape for the summer." Or,"I'd love to do a tri-athlon someday." Well, why not now?

No, really. Why not?

Sure timing has a lot to do with how much we can add to our proverbial plate at any given time, but studies suggest that the average American watches about four hours of TV a night.
Fours hours a night! Sure I have been guilty of this in the past, and if your will come to a complete halt if you don't watch "Idol"...well then...you wouldn't make it too far with us.

I read a story the other night about about a woman who started her own line of Omega 3 salad dressing, from her home, after she got home from her full time job and her kids where in bed. Her quote from the story when asked how she could do this was, "People don't realize how much you can accomplish in 1-2 focused hours of work."

Now the key word in that statement is work, not activity.

I see so many people try to accomplish goals with activity and not work. People seem to confuse the two all the time. Focused work toward a specific objective is how to make progress. The cliche "fake it until you make it" will only get you so far.

Focused work.

Like I explained in our last newsletter, all of our Semi-Private Coaching clients fill out a goals sheet telling waht they want to accomplish. This allows us to set up a program to help them reach the goal.

The time that they spend with us is just what we talked about above. It's focused work, a babystep toward your specific goal.

By focusiong like a laser on your specific goals, we get you results faster than the typical gym trainer. These trainers typically have one workout they do with everybody, but there are exceptions to the rule. But chances are they're going to walk you from machine to machine and shoot the breeze with you while you're on the treadmill. By implementing this cookie cutter approach, most their client are doing activity, but probably are no closing to getting the body they wanted than when they walked into the gym that day.

Every exercise, set, rep in our programs is there for a reason...to get you closer to your goal. That's why we call ourselves fitness coaches, not trainers.

Trainers teach.

Coaches lead. (That's pretty good, huh?)

Sorry I got a little long winded there but I think I got the point across the way I wanted to.
1) Set your goals. Where do you want to be in 5 years? Now work backwards. In 3 years? One year? Six months?

2) How do you get there? Whats your plan? Do you have one? Lucky for you, we specialize in making plans. Call us we can help.

3) Do what Oprah says. OK, not on a daily basis, but the part about the work. Do the work.

Kori has a great quote on her desk from Vince Lombardi, "The only place success come before work is in the dictionary." Write that down, nothing could be more true.

Thats's all I got for ya. Hope it made sense. Hope it lights a fire under you next time in the gym.

BJ